Meet the crazy concept phones of 2018

These concept phones aren't on the market yet—some are far from it—but they provide a peek at the sorts of bendy, transparent and wearable phones we'll probably see on the shelves five or ten years from now.

Muscular Mobile Phone

The shape shifting Muscular Mobile Phone is designed to contract like a muscle upon receiving notifications.

When the phone rings, it changes shape from flat to a more ergonomic curved profile for more-comfortable use. When you finish a call, you can deactivate the phone by pushing it down against a flat surface.

The Mobile Script Phone gives you both phone and tablet functionality in one sleek device. It features two touchscreens—a small external screen and a larger 9-inch screen that the user pulls out from within the smaller one.

The entire device is covered with a solar-charging nano material, which automatically feeds power to the phone's battery; a wireless charging option is also available.

At first glance, the Mobikoma doesn’t look that different from current Windows Phone 8 devices like the Nokia Lumia 920.

However, the phone is actually composed of 18 small interchangeable tiles. Only the two tiles that house the device’s SIM card and microphone are necessary for the device to be functional, so you can rearrange the device to form a tiny two-tile (44mm by 22mm by 6mm) phone, a large nine-tile by six-tile (19.8cm by 13.2cm by 6mm) tablet, or any size in between.

The Space3 phone is designed with navigation in mind. It has two transparent screens: the main “mother” screen and the secondary “lens” screen. When navigating a route that won’t all fit on one screen, simply remove the secondary lens screen and “the map is thus extended into an unlimited virtual plane.”

The phone is designed with navigation in mind, but the two interactive screens could have other applications as well. You might, for instance, display a video on one pane and a chat window to talk about it on the other.

The Samsung One looks like a pen, but it has a 6-inch flexible display screen that unrolls from inside.

The slim device uses cloud-based memory and sports a small touchscreen on the side of the “pen” that can be used for checking the time, reading messages, and making phone calls. The Samsung One was designed by Yejin Jeon as part of the 2012 IF Design Talents contest.

The Windows Phone Surface N has an ultrathin clear screen with a staggeringly high 4K resolution. It also comes with interactive 3D maps and contains a camera that uses Lytro technology, which allows you to manually change the focus of your photos after you take them.

The raised part of the Kambala design is a built-in earpiece. When you insert that earpiece into your ear, the whole lightweight phone sits sideways (and hands-free) next to your cheek.

Most impressively, once in your ear, the phone is able to camouflage itself by mimicking your face and skin tone, using ultrasensitive sensors that take the image from the inside of the phone and project it to the outside so that the phone completely blends in with the side of your face.

Designed Nokia’s Research Center in collaboration with Cambridge’s Nanoscience Centre, the Morph was originally part of the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The Morph is composed of a superflexible nano material similar to spider silk that gives it the ability to change shape easily. It is also solar powered and self-cleaning, and it has an array of advanced nanosensors that can provide data for environmental analysis.

Designer Andrea Ponti describes this LG Touch concept, which took top prize in LG's 2012 Mobile Design competition, as “a state-of-the-art smartphone with raised touch screen that morphs in 3D thanks to micro-shock waves running through a polymer membrane.” Its touchscreen changes texture depending on the user’s needs. For example, vision-impaired users could navigate using braille, while online shoppers could feel fabric textures before making a purchase.